Join Jenny Balfour-Paul in this richly illustrated lecture on the worlds only natural blue dye, indigo. Widely used and traded worldwide for over six millennia and popular today in the 'slow fashion' movement, indigo has a fascinating colonial past reaching as far as rural Bengal and the great trading city of Kolkata. Balfour-Paul will recount her fieldwork travels in the Arab world and beyond, and how serendipity and a shared passion for this vivid colour led to her discovery, in the depths of the British Library, of the remarkable journals of forgotten explorer and indigo planter Thomas Machell.

Speaker: Jenny Balfour-Paul

Jenny Balfour-Paul is an international lecturer, traveller, writer and artist. Balfour-Paul is the author of three books on indigo, is an Hon. Research Fellow at Exeter University, Trustee of the Royal Geographical Society, Fellow of Royal Asiatic Society and Explorers Club and President of UK's Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.

She is the consultant curator for the Whitworth Art Gallery’s exhibition Indigo: a Blue to Dye For, partner in Silk Road Connect educational initiative launched by Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project in New York in 2009, consultant for documentary films and Indigo Sutra held in Kolkata in 2017. Her collections are held in major UK museums.

About Sister Bazaar

Sister Bazaar brings you India's finest handcrafted clothes, scarves and wraps. Designed and selected in Jaipur India, brought to you by Andree and Madeleine at our special exhibitions. Stay tuned for dates and locations! contact sisterbazaar@gmail.com